I Burn For You
by strawberrymacchiato
Summary: AU. She can't help herself-she was born this way. Cyclops!Quinn. One-shot.


For just this one moment, she wishes that she could see her lips. See the way they shift subconsciosly to form a smile, how they part when she sits next to her, when she's speaking excitedly, rambling, trying to get enough air in her lungs so she can ramble some more. Quinn wants to see it. She wants to put a picture to the soft velvet-like hair she strokes when they're together, to the warm arms that embrace her when they cuddle through thunderstorms, and the moments when Quinn gently whispers ''It's ok,'' into her trembling neck to alleviate her fears. For just this _one _moment, she wishes that she wasn't born with this curse.

She aches for this girl. She dreams of her. And as she stands upon the muddy earth on this cold winter morning, she can feel her hands in her own, and how she strokes her cheeks, and then-she hears it. A breathless confession. She's in love with her. Quinn doesn't dare move when she feels tender lips move against her own. Time stops. She cherishes each slow tug of her lips, feels the gentle graze of her teeth, hears her sigh longingly into her mouth. And all too soon, the lips have left her mouth and she hears a quiet voice in her ear.

''I burn for you.''

All her life, she's been afraid to fall in love. Each time she met someone new-acquaintance, friend, or something more, they'd all cower away when they saw her face. They weren't afraid of love. They were afraid of _her._ But then one day, that all changed. Rachel happened, and Rachel didn't mind that there was a metal visor concealing her eyes. She never even asked how, or why it was there. She just walked into Quinn's maths class, plopped down in the seat next to her, and stuck out her hand.

''Hi. I'm Rachel Berry. What's your name? Nice shades, by the way.''

That was how their friendship began. And you know what they say about love. It's friendship set on fire-a fire Quinn was desperately trying to avoid.

Before she met Rachel, Quinn had never felt the need to remove her visor. It was attached to her surgically not long after she was born to stop the constant laser beam that shot out from her eyes. According to the doctors' diagnosis, it was some unearthly defect, and her parents drummed the same thing into her when she was growing up. She wasn't like the other kids, who could goof around with their friends and play games, without a care in the world. She always had to take care that her visor didn't slip off, lest she might accidentally kill them. Laser them to death. She avoided social situations as much as possible, earning the titles nerd, loner, and outcast. Sometimes, she wanted to take it off just so she could zap them a little. They deserved it, anyway. The one time she tried it, the kid got third degree burns and she was suspended. But in that _one_ moment what she saw was indescribable. Bursting intense colours splashed their way across her field of vision, lines, shapes, tones and textures she had only ever dreamed of; she was seeing it all with her own eyes, and the emotions smouldering inside her were just as intense as those colours. She was _ecstatic, _beacause at last, the glorious world she had lived and breathed in, felt, heard and touched in, was finally hers to _see_. That night, her parents gave her the mightiest dressing down of all time, and that was the day she decided to never remove her visor again. She promised herself never to let her feelings get the better of her ever again, so she'd never have to feel that desire.

But now, standing here with Rachel so close, hearing her exhale sharp shaky breaths against her own chest, it was all too much. The spark in her chest was igniting. It was transforming into a full blown inferno, and Quinn couldn't tame it any longer.

''I...I want to see you.''

She heard a pained cry come from Rachel's mouth, and for a moment, she was scared that her wish would be denied. It had been ten long years since that day, where the eight year old Quinn made a decision to close herself off from the world. Ten years felt like an eternity for an eight year old kid, and without realising, silent tears had begun to stream down her own face. Her heartbeat went crazy when she heard Rachel's reply.

''I wanna see you too.''

She would be carfeful. She would take the utmost precaution to assure she didn't hurt Rachel in anyway. Her curse might have stopped her from being able to look at Rachel like everyone else did, but just one glimpse would be enough. Her nervous fingers attached themselves to the screws of her visor, and began to twist. Soon, the small metal pieces were in her pockets, and she was detaching the visor, pushing it back over her head, bending over slowly so she could place it on the floor. She stood, bracing herself. All the while she kept her eyes shut tightly, not daring to so much as peek in case she scared the living daylights out of her. They had come so far. She didn't want to lose Rachel after she saw who she really was.

''Quinn.'' She said in a tremulous voice, ''Open your eyes.''

Quinn swallowed, trying to push away the nerves that threatened to claw their way up to her throat and keep a permanent residence there. She turned her head to the side, so she wasn't looking face on. And then, for the first time in ten years, she let her eyelids flicker open.

Bright red scorching laser beams shot out in streams from her eyes, incinerating whatever object lay in her path, slicing across the trunks of ancient trees like they were playdough, sizzling down fences and lamp-posts and billboards, chopping down flowers and newly planted vegetables in peoples' gardens, and burning rocks to ashes, and to dust. But at last, she could _see_.

And out the corner of one eye, she saw _her_. The most exquisite creature she had ever laid eyes on. She was standing there crying, with her beautiful, big _brown_ eyes, and her _wavy_ chestnut hair; her soft _pink_ lips that were parted and shaped into a smile, and then she was collapsing on top of her and clasping her hands around her waist possessively.

Quinn smiled, because just for one moment, she had let herself live.


End file.
